Will o-line decide to dominate?

September 23, 2006|ERIC HANSEN Tribune Staff Writer

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Bob Morton spoke in parables, sounding like a cross between The Little Engine That Could and Oprah. "The word 'impossible' is not in the dictionary to me," the Notre Dame fifth-year senior offensive guard said when talking about trying to improve the Irish offensive line play. The word "perplexing" probably isn't either. But for anyone outside the Irish football program looking in on tonight's clash between No. 12 Notre Dame (2-1) and perennial nemesis Michigan State (3-0) in Spartan Stadium, the real pregame soap opera has nothing to do with the apparent icy relationship between Michigan State coach John L. Smith and Notre Dame counterpart Charlie Weis and all the little subplots that come with that. It's the Irish offensive line. It was supposed to be the rock in Weis' mind this season. Instead it's a puzzle. Three games into the season, the Irish offense is on pace for allowing one of the worst sack totals (32) in school history and generating the worst rushing offense (84.0). Granted, Notre Dame has faced three of the better rushing defenses in the nation thus far (1. Michigan, 11. Penn State, 31. Georgia Tech), while the Irish play three of the worst rush defense teams among the 119 Division I-A squads later this season in North Carolina (100th), Army (114th) and Stanford (119th). But six more of its opponents are in the top 50 nationally in stopping the run, including tonight's foe -- Michigan State (No. 22). "The offensive line is really the heart of your offense," Weis said. "Between your offensive line and quarterback, that's where everything starts. I think we're all disappointed. I'm disappointed. (Quarterback) Brady (Quinn) is disappointed. The offensive line is disappointed about how this has gone so far." No one saw it coming. How could they have? It's a veteran group -- four multi-year starters and wunderkind Sam Young. It's a talented group -- left tackle Ryan Harris is projected to go in the first half of the first round in April's NFL Draft. Guard Dan Santucci and center John Sullivan are rated among the top five pro prospects at their respective positions. Morton will likely be using his accounting degree to count his NFL dollars instead of shoehorning himself into a 9-to-5 existence next year. And Young may have the highest ceiling of them all. It's also a group with great chemistry. Thursday night is Bruno's Pizza night, where the linemen go to talk about football and life, but never go to point fingers. "I always believe you're only as strong as your weakest link," Irish offensive line coach John Latina said. "The problem is it's one guy on one play, a different guy on the next. If you have one particular problem, you can usually solve it. So it goes back to being consistent. You don't always have to dominate, but you have to play consistently well." ESPN analyst Bill Curry, for one, believes the Irish will find that consistency sooner rather than later. "John Latina is one of the best technicians that I've seen in my days at ESPN," said Curry, a former college head coach at Georgia Tech, Alabama and Kentucky. "Really, he's one of the top two or three line coaches I've seen. That being said, this happens to some of the best lines in football at any level. It just happens." Curry related that it happened to him in 1970 while playing center for the Baltimore Colts. "This is a team that would eventually go on to win a world championship," said Curry, whose NFL career spanned a decade and included two Pro Bowl seasons. "But the first five or six weeks of the season, it was hard for us. We couldn't make a first down. We played Kansas City, and they sacked Johnny Unitas and Earl Morrall nine times. They beat us something like 44-24. "The humiliation was more than we could take. We said, 'We're not going to let this happen anymore,' and that's probably what these guys have been going through this week." But it's more than just an attitude adjustment. Curry identified the following challenges/solutions: Quarterback Brady Quinn's reads: "Quinn has to make the right calls, and it's not as easy to do as it was even five years ago," Curry said. "The game of football has evolved such that it's my quarterback against your defensive coordinator. And the defensive coordinator is sitting upstairs in the air-conditioned booth and the quarterback's down there getting his teeth knocked out. "The quarterback has to make the calls on what protections the team needs to be in, because the center can't see everything. The problem now is that some coordinators, after you make your calls, will change again. Then you've got two blockers on one defender and none on another. So Quinn is a big key to fixing this." Copy-cat defenses: Ohio State broke through in the Fiesta Bowl last January with some perplexing fronts and looks against the Irish, and former OSU defensive coordinator and current Georgia Tech defensive guru Jon Tenuta refined those. "Jon Tenuta had nine months to get ready for that (ND-Georgia Tech game)," Curry said of the Irish season opener. "You don't want to play Jon Tenuta with him having nine months, I don't care who you are. Other defensive coordinators will pick those elements up and do it until you stop them from doing it. Now it's Charlie Weis' turn to adjust back." Weis bristled at the suggestion that familiarity could breed success against his offense. He offered that his creativity and innovation is neutralized when the team gets behind three touchdowns, as the Irish found themselves early and often last week against Michigan. "Now you're just slinging it down the field," Weis said, "getting as many receivers out as you possibly can in vertical and horizontal zones." Morton's solution is much less complex. It is simply to take Latina's lead and play more physical. "It starts with an individual just wanting to put your face mask in there and go," Morton said, "and not worrying about how the neck's going to feel, not worrying about the ringing in your ears. "Then you bring it all together. Instead of being five individuals who can rattle some cages, we want to rattle one big cage and move forward." Staff writer Eric Hansen: ehansen@sbtinfo.com (574) 235-6470